Alain Leroy Locke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954) was an Americanwriter, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. Distinguished as the first African American Rhodes Scholar in 1907, Locke was the philosophical architect —the acknowledged "Dean"— of the Harlem Renaissance. As a result, popular listings of influential African-Americans have repeatedly included him. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed: "We're going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke came through the universe."[1]

In 1907, Locke graduated from Harvard University with degrees in English and philosophy, and was honored as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and recipient of the prestigious Bowdoin Prize.[4] After graduation, he was the first African-American selected as a Rhodes Scholar (and the last to be selected until 1960). At that time, Rhodes selectors did not meet candidates in person, but there is evidence that at least some selectors knew he was African-American.[5] On arriving at Oxford, Locke was denied admission to several colleges, and several Rhodes Scholars from the American South refused to live in the same college or attend events with Locke.[4][5] He was finally admitted to Hertford College, where he studied literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin, from 1907–1910. In 1910, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy.

Locke wrote from Oxford in 1910 that the "primary aim and obligation" of a Rhodes Scholar "is to acquire at Oxford and abroad generally a liberal education, and to continue subsequently the Rhodes mission [of international understanding] throughout life and in his own country. If once more it should prove impossible for nations to understand one another as nations, then, as Goethe said, they must learn to tolerate each other as individuals".[6][7][8]

Locke returned to Harvard in 1916 to work on his doctoral dissertation, The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value. In his thesis, he discusses the causes of opinions and social biases, and that these are not objectively true or false, and therefore not universal. Locke received his PhD in philosophy in 1918.

Locke returned to Howard University as the chair of the department of philosophy. During this period, he began teaching the first classes on race relations, leading to his dismissal in 1925.[10] After being reinstated in 1928, Locke remained at Howard until his retirement in 1953. Locke Hall, on the Howard campus, is named after him.

Locke promoted African-American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African-American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material.

Locke was the guest editor of the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic titled "Harlem, Mecca of the New Negro", a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about its flourishing culture.[11] In December of that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known works. A landmark in black literature (later acclaimed as the "first national book" of African America), it was an instant success. Locke contributed five essays: the "Foreword", "The New Negro", "Negro Youth Speaks", "The Negro Spirituals", and "The Legacy of Ancestral Arts".

Locke's philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential black equality; no longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for fair treatment. Because this was an idea and not a law, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view.

While his own writing was sophisticated philosophy, and therefore not popularly accessible, he mentored others in the movement who would become more broadly known, like Zora Neale Hurston.[5]

Locke was a member of the Bahá'í Faith and declared his belief in Bahá'u'lláh in 1918. It was common to write to 'Abdu'l-Bahá to declare one's new faith, and Locke received a letter, or "tablet", from 'Abdu'l-Bahá in return. When 'Abdu'l-Bahá died in 1921, Locke enjoyed a close relationship with Shoghi Effendi, then head of the Bahá'í Faith. Shoghi Effendi is reported to have said to Locke, "People as you, Mr. Gregory, Dr. Esslemont and some other dear souls are as rare as diamond."[4]

Locke was gay, and may have encouraged and supported other gay African-Americans who were part of the Harlem Renaissance.[12] However, he was not fully public in his orientation[5] and referred to it as his point of "vulnerable/invulnerability",[4] taken to mean an area of risk and strength in his view.[4]

After his retirement from Howard University in 1953, Locke moved to New York City.[13] He suffered from heart disease,[13] and after a six-week illness died at Mount Sinai Hospital on June 9, 1954.[14]

Locke was cremated, and his remains turned over to Dr. Arthur Fauset, an anthropologist who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Fauset was Locke's close friend, and executor of his estate. Fauset died in 1983, and the remains were given to his friend, Reverend Sadie Mitchell. Mitchell ministered at African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia. Mitchell retained the ashes until the mid-1990s, when she asked Dr. J. Weldon Norris, a professor of music at Howard University, to take the ashes to Washington, D.C. The ashes then resided at Howard University's Moorland–Spingarn Research Center until 2007. Concerned that the human remains were not properly cared for, the ashes were given to Howard University's W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, which had extensive experience handling human remains. Locke's ashes, which were stored in a plain paper bag in a simple round metal container, were transferred to a more appropriate small funerary urn. They were locked in a safe to keep them secure.[5]

Howard University officials initially considered having Locke's ashes buried in a niche at Locke Hall on the Howard campus, similar to the way that Langston Hughes' ashes were interred at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City in 1991. But Kurt Schmoke, the university's legal counsel, was concerned about setting a precedent that might lead to other burials at the university. After an investigation revealed no legal problems to the plan, university officials decided the remains should be buried off-site. At first, thought was given to burying Locke beside his mother, Mary Hawkins Locke. But Howard officials quickly discovered a problem: She had been interred at Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C., but that cemetery closed in 1959 and her remains transferred to National Harmony Memorial Park—which failed to keep track of them. (She was buried in a mass grave along with 37,000 other unclaimed remains from Columbian Harmony.)[5]

Howard University eventually decided to bury Alain Locke's remains at historic Congressional Cemetery, and African American Rhodes Scholars raised $8,000 to purchase a burial plot there. Locke was interred at Congressional Cemetery on September 13, 2014. His tombstone reads:

1885–1954

Herald of the Harlem Renaissance

Exponent of Cultural Pluralism

On the back of the headstone is a nine-pointed Bahá'í star (representing Locke's religious beliefs); a Zimbabwe Bird, emblem of the nation Locke adopted as a Rhodes Scholar; a lambda, symbol of the gay rights movement; and the logo of Phi Beta Sigma, the fraternity Locke joined. In the center of these four symbols is an Art Deco representation of an African woman's face set against the rays of the sun. This image is a simplified version of the bookplate that Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas designed for Locke. Below the bookplate image are the words "Teneo te, Africa" ("I hold you, my Africa").[5]

Ossie Davis, one of Locke's philosophy students when he was a teacher, said Locke launched his career. He told him to go to Harlem if he really wanted to work in a theatre. He followed every advices he got from Locke and it worked.

Locke's ideology and leadership even had impact in Europe. In France, people were looking at him like a figure that brought the black population together in the racist era that America was facing at the time. They compared that movement to how the Jewish population in Europe was staying tight together, especially after World War II.

At Howard University, the main building for the College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to his legacy, "Alain Locke Hall."[16]

In addition to the books listed below, Locke edited the "Bronze Booklet" series, a set of eight volumes published by Associates in Negro Folk Education in the 1930s. He also reviewed literature written by African Americans in journals such as Opportunity and Phylon. His works, inter alia, include:

The Negro in the Three Americas. Journal of Negro Education 14 (Winter 1944): 7–18.

Negro Spirituals. Freedom: A Concert in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (1940). Compact disc. New York: Bridge, 2002. Audio (1:14).

Spirituals (1940). The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture. Edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart. New York and London: Garland, 1983. Pp. 123–26.

The New Negro: An Interpretation. New York: Arno Press, 1925.

Four Negro Poets. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1927.

Plays of Negro Life: a Source-Book of Native American Drama. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1927.

"Pluralism and Ideological Peace". Freedom and Experience: Essays Presented to Horace M. Kallen. Edited by Milton R. Konvitz and Sidney Hook. Ithaca: New School for Research and Cornell University Press, 1947. Pp. 63–69.

"Pluralism and Intellectual Democracy". Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion, Second Symposium. New York: Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion, 1942. Pp. 196–212. Reprinted in The Philosophy of Alain Locke, 51–66.

"The Moral Imperatives for World Order". Summary of Proceedings, Institute of International Relations, Mills College, Oakland, CA, June 18–28, 1944, 19–20. Reprinted in The Philosophy of Alain Locke, 143, 151–152.

Three Corollaries of Cultural Relativism. Proceedings of the Second Conference on the Scientific and the Democratic Faith. New York, 1941.

"Reason and Race". Phylon 8:1 (1947): 17–27. Reprinted in Jeffrey C. Stewart, ed. The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture. New York and London: Garland, 1983. Pp. 319–27.

"Educator and Publicist", Star of the West 22.8 (November 1931) 254–55. [Obituary of George William Cook [Baha'i], 1855–1931].

"Impressions of Haifa". [Appreciation of Baha'i leader, Shoghi Effendi, whom Locke met during his first of two Baha'i pilgrimages to Haifa, Palestine (now Israel)]. Star of the West 15.1 (1924): 13–14; Alaine [sic] Locke, "Impressions of Haifa", in Bahá'í Year Book, Volume One, April 1925 – April 1926, comp. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada (New York: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1926) 81, 83; Alaine [sic] Locke, "Impressions of Haifa", in The Bahá'í World: A Biennial International Record, Volume II, April 1926 – April 1928, comp. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada (New York: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1928; reprint, Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1980) 125, 127; Alain Locke, "Impressions of Haifa", in The Bahá'í World: A Biennial International Record, Volume III, April 1928 – April 1930, comp. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada (New York: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1930; reprint, Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1980) 280, 282.

The Negro Poets of the United States. Anthology of Magazine Verse 1926 and Yearbook of American Poetry. Sesquicentennial edition. Ed. William S. Braithwaite. Boston: B.J. Brimmer, 1926. Pp. 143–151. The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture. Edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart. New York and London: Garland, 1983. Pp. 43–45.

Plays of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native American Drama. Alain Locke and Montgomery Davis, eds. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1927. "Decorations and Illustrations by Aaron Douglas".

^Locke always gave his year of birth as "1886", and many sources give 1886. He was, however, born in 1885. A note in the Alain Locke Papers (archived at Howard University), discovered by Christopher Buck, offers a firsthand clue as to why Locke represented the year of his birth as 1886 rather than 1885: "In the Alain Locke Papers, there is a note in Locke's handwriting that reads: 'Alain Leroy Locke[:] Alan registered as Arthur (white Phila Vital Statistics owing prejudice of Quaker physician Isaac Smedley to answering question of race. [B]orn 13 So. 19th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Sunday between 10 and 11 A.M. September 13, 1885. Called Roy as a child[.] Alain from 16 on. [illegible] First born son. 2nd brother born 1889—lived 2 months. Named Arthur first selected for me.' . . . As to why he represented his year of birth as 1886 rather than 1885, Locke may have wanted to avoid the embarrassment of having future biographers discover that he was registered as white on his birth certificate." (Buck, Christopher. Alain Locke – Faith and Philosophy," Studies in Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, Vol 18, Anthony A. Lee General Editor, pp. 11–12 – ISBN 978-1-890688-38-7)